NEW DELHI— India has strongly criticized Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s speech at the 80th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), calling it a succession of “absurd theatrics” and “ludicrous narratives.” Two people spoke out strongly for India: S.P. Vaid, the former Director General of Police (DGP) for Jammu and Kashmir, and Petal Gahlot, India’s First Secretary in its Permanent Mission to the UN.
S.P. Vaid was very clear in an interview with media when he said that Pakistan was the only country that deserved a Nobel Prize for “speaking lies.” He then made fun of Pakistan’s military and leadership, saying they bomb their own people. Vaid remarked, “India does not bomb its own people.” “It is the Pakistan government led by you and Asim Munir and the Pakistan armed forces that bomb their own people…” He told Sharif to “end the tyranny on the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan” first.
India’s Right to Reply at the UN
The UN itself gave the strongest response, with Petal Gahlot speaking for India. She said that Sharif had “once again glorified terrorism, which is so important to their foreign policy.” Gahlot said that “no amount of drama” or “no level of lies” could hide the truth of what Pakistan did.
In May, Gahlot specifically tore apart Sharif’s description of a recent military conflict with India. She set the record straight by saying that Pakistan was threatening more assaults until May 9, but on May 10, its military “pleaded” with India to “stop the fighting.” She added that this rapid change was because of the “destruction caused to multiple Pakistani airbases by Indian forces,” and she said that the photographs of this were available to the public.
The First Secretary also made fun of Sharif’s claim that Pakistan “won” the war. She stated, “If destroyed runways and burned-out hangars look like victory, as the Prime Minister said, Pakistan can have it.”
Gahlot further said in her strong speech that Islamabad protects terrorists and is a center of terrorism. She told the assembly that Pakistan had protected a terrorist group that was backed by Pakistan before the UN Security Council on April 25, 2025, after it killed a lot of tourists in Jammu and Kashmir. Gahlot also talked about how Pakistan has sheltered people like Osama bin Laden in the past. He said that a country “long steeped in the tradition of deploying and exporting terrorism has no shame in advancing the most ludicrous narratives.”
The heated argument at the UNGA shows how tense things are between the two nuclear-armed neighbors and how strongly India stands against terrorism that crosses borders.